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ASRock A55 Pro3 Review

Closer Look:

The BIOS

ASRock went ahead and equipped the A55 Pro3 with an EFI BIOS. The A55 Pro3 is a budget board, so I wasn't expecting it to use an EFI BIOS, however, the inclusion was nice. Especially because there are now some users who won't even touch a motherboard that is not equipped with an EFI BIOS. Upon entering the BIOS, you'll be greeted with the main page. Here you'll be able to view system information, as well as the date and time. Moving to the right gives us the OC Tweaker menu. Here you'll be able to adjust all the options needed to overclock your hardware. Just as with the A75 motherboards, the ASRock A55 Pro3 will allow you to adjust the multiplier higher than your CPU's max, in my case 29. Doing so will not actually change anything, instead it will just confuse any unsuspecting victims. If you intend to overclock your Llano hardware, you may also want to disable any power savings features. This can be done by heading over to the Advanced tab and fiddling with the CPU, Northbridge, and Southbridge configurations.

The Advanced tab is followed by the H/W Monitor. Here you'll be able to monitor idle voltages, temperatures, and fan speeds. Oddly enough, the H/W Monitor in the BIOS reported higher temperatures, while idle, than any temperature monitoring program in Windows at any point in time. This is now the second Llano motherboard that I've seen weirdness on when it comes to temperature monitoring. After the H/W Monitor is the Boot section. Here you'll be able to change your boot order or adjust other boot settings.

The remaining two sections of the BIOS are the Security section and the Save and Exit section. The security section will allow you to set a BIOS password for both a supervisor and a user. The Save and Exit section will allow you to save your changes and exit, or load optimized defaults.